Hello, I am Dr. Kara Taczak and I am one of Dr. Yancey's original grad students when she first went to Florida State almost 20 years ago. Seems a little unreal to me that it's been that long because I know I haven't aged a day over 29 and I'm guessing Kathi would say something similar. Okay, she may say 39, but she's definitely going to agree with me.

I have the privilege of introducing "Y for Yanceyisms" and I decided to do a PowerPoint presentation. You might be wondering why a PowerPoint. Don't you worry, I have three reasons for that.

One, Kathi is known for giving some pretty powerful presentations. In fact, many of them have been turned into well-cited articles. Every time she gives a presentation, she accompanies it with a PowerPoint. These PowerPoints are always incredibly thoughtful, very engaging, and of course, reflective. So, it seems only fitting when I'm going to be talking about sayings that she is known for to also use a genre that she is known for.

Second, the overall project is meant to be multimodal and of course PowerPoint allows me to engage in multiple modes.

Third, I really appreciate the ways that PowerPoint allows you to be both personal and academic, something that I know Kathy would also appreciate.

So, what is the purpose of this introductory video? I am going to share some of my own experiences with Yanceyisms to provide some background and context into what these even are. So I started grad school much like other grad students, full of nervous energy and anxiety and lots of excitement. My cohort and I were placed into two incredibly challenging courses taught by two extremely smart, savvy women, which made the courses all the more challenging.

My rhetorical theory class was taught by Dr. Yancey, and she caught wind pretty early on that we were struggling. And so one night she came to class armed with the most unexpected surprise. She gave each one of us a little yellow post-it with the words, "Trust the process." That moment has been incredibly impactful on my my own career, especially those three little words, trust the process. In fact, I have even written about it with Kathi for a book chapter. But I often find myself recalling those words when I am teaching my own grad students or undergrads. I even share them with colleagues and I constantly use them as a reminder for myself when I may be struggling or need a little bit of a reminder.

My second favorite Yanceyism is one I don't think she used with a lot of people and she I think she used it with me because I happen to be around her a lot and that's because I went to Florida State to work with Kathi. My sole goal for going to Florida State was to work with the great Kathleen Blake Yancey. So I was her research assistant and then I was her editorial assistant for two years for College Composition and Communication. And because of that, like I said, we were together a lot. So oftentimes we would disagree about things and she would always say to me, "Reasonable people of goodwill can disagree." Now, a lot of times it was over something silly like my hair color. You may notice it's pink. All the way through grad school, it was some funky color or various colors. And sometimes she would really like those colors and sometimes she wouldn't. And I would always have a sassy comeback like, "Well, I really like it." And to which she would reply, "Reasonable people of goodwill can disagree."

Those words have had just as much of an impact on me because when I'm teaching my own rhetorical theory class or my undergrad class, introducing students to "rhetorical situation" for example, I often tell them about the fact that we always enter an experience with different opinions, different backgrounds, different knowledges and of course different--a different skill-set. And by teaching them to be good rhetoricians I'm trying to teach them that reasonable people of goodwill can disagree. So I offer these two examples from my own experience with Yancey with Yanceyisms to show the lasting impact that they have. I remember these fondly from my grad school days. I share them with my own students and my colleagues um and in hopes that I can also give them the same encouragement that Kathi gave me when she was sharing them with me.

My goal with this PowerPoint presentation is to showcase all of that beautiful wisdom that Kathi shared with her grad students throughout the years and the ways in which it impacted all of us. And so I'm hoping that throughout the the PowerPoint you will understand that the Yanceyisms are so much more than just words. They are the emotions that came behind them and they are the experiences that were associated with them and they have um meant something for much more than the people that she said it to. many more people have been impacted by Kathy sharing these um words of wisdom with her grad students. I hope you enjoy this PowerPoint presentation.

And so my PowerPoint presentation is coming to a close. I hope you've enjoyed learning more about what Yanceyisms mean and the ways in which they've been represented in various people's lives. Of course, this is only a snippit of the amount of people she has impacted with her words and phrases. And wrapping up my PowerPoint presentation, I wanted to quickly comment on just a few things. Design and layout. I hope you can see the ways in which I attempted to fuse a little bit of Kathi with a little bit of myself into the design and layout. Intentional choices were made.

And then I have three takeaways for you. And of course there are three of them.

One, Yanceyisms are nothing without the person behind the words. And this of course starts with the woman herself, Kathi, and then each person who shares those words after they hear them from her. Which means second, Yanceyisms create a sense of community over a shared appreciation of memories and the meanings behind them. Which leads me to number three. Yanceyisms have a lasting power, a legacy so to speak. They are delivered by those who experience them so that they may continue to live on. And did you see what I just did there? I remix something Kathy created.

Yanceyisms are delivered, lived and experienced. And that is the heart of the Yanceyisms because they are delivered, they are lived, and they are experienced.

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